Readings

All readings should be completed in preparation (i.e. before!) the day they are listed. Please note that what is listed below is not everything that is due on that particular day; consult the syllabus regularly.

Class 2 (2/1/18) – Urbanism

• Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Chapter 2, “The uses of sidewalks: safety,” 29-54
• E. B. White, Here is New York, 25-37 and 54-56.

Class 3 (2/6/18) – Rent regulation research project: strategy session

• Kate L. Turabian, Student’s Guide to Writing College Papers, 4th Edition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010), Chapter 1, “What Researchers Do and How They Think about It,” 11-25.
• Review the website of the Baruch Human Research Protection Program Office (you do not need to take the CITI training): http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/hrpp/

Class 4 (2/8/18) – American Cities Today

• Thomas J. Sugrue, “The Rise and Fall of Detroit’s Middle Class,” The New Yorker, July 22, 2013: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2013/07/the-rise-and-fall-of-detroits-middle-class.html
• Jelani Cobb, “Class Notes,” The New Yorker, August 31, 2015: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/08/31/class-notes-annals-of-education-jelani-cobb

Class 6 (2/15/18) – The Great Migrations

• Isabel Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration (New York: Vintage Books, 2010), overview and Gladney excerpts: Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, Part VII.

Class 7 (2/22/18) – Federal Housing Policies and the New Deal

• Kenneth T. Jackson, Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), “Federal Subsidy and the Suburban Dream: How Washington Changed the American Housing Market,” 190-218.

Class 8 (2/27/18) – Robert Moses and Urban Renewal

• Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York (New York: Vintage, 1974), Introduction, “Wait Until the Evening,” 1-21.
• Samuel Zipp, Manhattan Projects: The Rise and Fall of Urban Renewal in Cold War New York (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), Introduction, 3-29.

Class 9 (3/1/18) – Public Housing

• Michael Kimmelman, “Towers of Dreams: One Ended in Nightmare, New York Times, January 26, 2012, C1: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/arts/design/penn–south–and–pruitt–igoe–starkly–different–housing–plans.html
• Joseph Heathcott, “Public Housing Stands Alone,” in Public Housing Myths: Perception, Reality, and Social Policy (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2015), 31-46.

Class 10 (3/6/18) – Fair Housing

• Nikole Hannah-Jones, “Living Apart: How the Government Betrayed a Landmark Civil Rights Law,” ProPublica, June 25, 2015: https://www.propublica.org/article/living-apart-how-the-government-betrayed-a-landmark-civil-rights-law 

Class 11 (3/8/18) – What Should Be Done?

• Ta-Nehisi Coates, “The Case for Reparations,” The Atlantic, June 2014: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/
• Kevin D. Williamson, “The Case against Reparations,” National Review, May 24, 2014: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/378737/case-against-reparations-kevin-d-williamson

Class 12 (3/13/18) – Introduction to Rent Regulation

• W. Dennis Keating, “Rent Control: Its Origins, History, and Controversy,” in Rent Control: Regulation and the Rental Housing Market (New Brunswick, NJ: Center for Urban Policy Research, 1998), 1-14.
• Peter D. Salins, “Reviving New York City’s Housing Market,” in Housing and Community Development in New York City: Facing the Future (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999), 53-71.
• Furman Center for Real Estate & Urban Policy, Fact Brief: Rent Stabilization in New York City (April 2012).

Class 13 (3/15/18) – Homelessness

• Coalition for the Homeless, State of the Homeless 2017 (2017): http://www.coalitionforthehomeless.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/CFH-State-of-the-Homeless-2017.pdf
• Coalition for the Homeless, Why Are So Many People Homeless?: http://www.coalitionforthehomeless.org/the-catastrophe-of-homelessness/why-are-so-many-people-homeless/
• Ian Frazier, “Hidden City,” The New Yorker, October 28, 2013: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/10/28/hidden-city
• Nikita Stewart, “New Homeless Shelters Slow to Open, Despite de Blasio Promise,” New York Times, January 23, 2018: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/23/nyregion/homeless-shelters-nyc-de-blasio.html

Class 14 (3/20/18) – Gentrification and Neighborhood Change

• Ronda Kaysen, “Priced Out of a Childhood Home,” New York Times, May 13, 2016: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/15/realestate/priced-out-of-my-childhood-home.html
• Lance Freeman, There Goes the ‘Hood: Views of Gentrification from the Ground Up (Philadelphia, Temple University Press, 2006), Chapter 3, “There Goes the ‘Hood.”

Class 15 (3/22/18) – Schools and Housing

• Nikole Hannah-Jones, “Choosing a School for My Daughter in a Segregated City,” The New York Times Magazine, June 9, 2016: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/12/magazine/choosing-a-school-for-my-daughter-in-a-segregated-city.html
• Dianna Douglas, “Are Private Schools Immoral?” The Atlantic, December 14, 2017: https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/12/progressives-are-undermining-public-schools/548084/

Class 16 (3/27/18) – Overview of Rent Regulation in NYC

• Timothy L. Collins and the Staff of the NYC Rent Guidelines Board, An Introduction to the NYC Rent Guidelines Board and the Rent Stabilization System, February 2016, read pages 13-41 and 59-88, skim the rest.

Class 17 (3/29/18) – Overview of Rent Regulation in NYC, cont’d; Presentation strategies and Skills

• Edward Tufte, The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint.
• Read FIVE of these 45 fact sheets prepared by the NYS Division of Housing and Community Renewal, and be prepared to summarize them in class: http://www.nyshcr.org/Rent/FactSheets/
• NYC Rent Guidelines Board, Explanation of Rent Guidelines Process: https://www1.nyc.gov/site/rentguidelinesboard/rent-guidelines/explanation-of-rent-guidelines-process.page

Class 19 and 20 (4/12/18 and 4/17/18) – Rent Guidelines Board Data

• New York City Rent Guidelines Board, 2017 Housing Supply Report, May 25, 2017.*
• New York City Rent Guidelines Board, 2017 Price Index of Operating Costs, April 13, 2017.*
• New York City Rent Guidelines Board, 2017 Income and Affordability Study, April 13, 2017.*
• New York City Rent Guidelines Board, 2017 Income and Expense Study, March 30, 2017.*